Matt Pocock launches The AI Coding Dictionary to standardize AI coding terms like harness, spec and cache tokens
mattpocockuk · x · 2026-10-06
Matt Pocock amplified a call to define what "spec" means in software dev by launching The AI Coding Dictionary, a plain-English glossary of AI coding vocabulary.
Key definitions include:
- Harness: everything around the model that turns it into an agent — tools, system prompt, context-window management, permissions, hooks.
- Model vs provider: a model is stateless parameters doing next-token prediction; providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, or local Ollama) serve inference.
- Prefix cache / cache tokens: providers cache shared prefixes so repeat requests bill at lower rates.
- Effort: a dial for reasoning depth, trading more output tokens for better answers.
- Input vs output tokens: outputs cost more compute and are billed higher.
The project aims to standardize the vocabulary of AI coding.
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